A dart board of an electronic dart game apparatus is composed of a disk-like target that is constituted by a bull's-eye located in the divided center, and a board which is provided with a plurality of holes in the form of a honeycomb surrounding the bull's-eye concentrically and circularly and which is sectioned into different scores.
A player throws a dart called “soft dart” at the target, the soft dart being in the form of a resin rod having a thin end. When the soft dart is inserted into one of the holes on a target board of each segment, a shock thus obtained moves the target board backward, whereby an electrical contact is closed. Accordingly, a detection signal is sent to a control circuit, and thereby a predetermined score on the target board is displayed on a display board. When the electrical contact is closed, an electrical contact section is returned elastically, and the target board into which the soft dart is inserted is pushed back, whereby the electrical contact is opened and the target board is returned to the original position thereof.
When the next dart is thrown and inserted into any of the holes on the target board while keeping the soft dart inserted into the target board, the next score is detected.
The end of each dart that projects on the backside of the target board sends a shock to the board sectioned into score units disposed within the target board. This board is equipped with an electrical contact, wherein the electrical contact is closed by the shock, whereby it is detected that the arrows are inserted into the board, and then detection signals are sent to a controller. The controller calculates the scores, which are displayed on a score display section (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-65973 (P.1, FIG. 6) and Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. S61-1680 (P.3, FIG. 4)).
On the other hand, there is a ball-throwing game equipment which is provided with: a plurality of optical sensors for detecting a position through which a thrown ball passes, the optical sensors being provided vertically and horizontally so as to face each other; and a control circuit for sending, on the basis of each signal sent from each optical sensor detecting the position, an image signal of a ball reaching position to a display screen that is a target of an image display device, wherein the size and pattern of the target displayed on the display screen are variably set by performing an input operation on the control circuit.
This ball-throwing game equipment is configured such that a strikeout target is displayed on the display screen, the plurality of optical sensors for detecting the position through which the ball passes are provided face-to-face in vertical and horizontal directions in front of the screen, a controller for sending, on the basis of each signal sent from each optical sensor detecting the position, an image signal of a ball reaching position to the display screen that is a target of an image display device, and the size and pattern of the target displayed on the display screen are variably set by performing an input operation on the controller. This can be implemented as a dart game (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-159357 (P.1 through P.6, FIG. 4)).
Incidentally, in the technologies disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-65973 (P.1, FIG. 6) and Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. S61-1680 (P.3, FIG. 4), the design of the target of each electronic dart game is fixed, and the design cannot be changed. Also, since the target is fixed, a dynamic target cannot be obtained.
Furthermore, in such target, although scores can be acquired by means of a shock applied when a dart is inserted, the dart sometimes falls, or scores are obtained by means of a shock caused by things that cannot be inserted. According to the rules of a dart game, such scores do count as the number of dart throws but are not converted to real scores. However, if one does not understand the rules of a dart game, he may misunderstand that scores are obtained and advance in the game, or he may misunderstand that he can throw a dart again and actually throw one.
Moreover, in the technology described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-159357 (P.1 through P.6, FIG. 4), the design of the target can be changed by changing an image displayed on the display screen. However, after balls are thrown at the target one by one as with a strikeout, the thrown balls hit the target and then fall, thus the next ball is thrown at the target on which there are no balls.
In the case in which this technology is applied to a dart game, the following problems arise. Three darts are thrown in one round, wherein the dart that is thrown first remains inserted into the target. Therefore, the light from each optical sensor is blocked by the arrow that is thrown first, and, even when the next arrow is inserted into the area where the light is blocked, the optical sensor may not be activated. As a result, the position of a dart that is thrown subsequently cannot be detected.